Season 1 (The Elysium)
Season 1 of The Elysium was broadcast in May 2015, following the end of Season 49 of Doctor Who. Overview Origins The Elysium's roots were founded in the finale of ''Panopticon'', ''Doctor''. Ronald D. Moore purposely wrote the ending to Panopticon to be open-ended enough to be revisited sometime in the future, as by that point, he was deep into planning his era in-charge of Doctor Who, and intended to bring back the Vex/Time Lord fleet. With Panopticon coming to an end, as well as Cold Front's lack of renewal for a Season 3, CBS were looking to produce a brand new spinoff show, and ideally a show which could be a bit more self-contained than Panopticon, and stand out as a major CBS show, with it possibly rivalling the likes of HBO's Game of Thrones, in terms of scale. Meanwhile, Ronald D. Moore commissioned Ira Steven Behr to write a follow-up episode, Remnants, in Season 49, showing what happened to the Vex/Time Lord fleet, after the events of Panopticon. This episode was largely written before The Elysium was even conceived. When CBS approached Moore, and co-showrunner, Jane Espenson, about the possibility of a new spinoff, two major concepts went into development, based upon stories from Season 49. The first was a spinoff set on Earth during the Gaian regime, linking in with the story arc in Season 49, and it would've featured Amanda Theodore as the main character. The second was what became The Elysium, originally titled The 1252, which focused upon the arrival of the Vex/Time Lord fleet on the planet, they set off for in Doctor. '' After a few months of development, Moore and Espenson pitched ''The Elysium ''to CBS, and it was formally green-lit. The pitch for the show outlined the main character as an improvised single mother, while also focusing on a stressed-out civil servant, an eager but extremely curious history teacher and an especially gifted scientist. The concept continued to develop more in the process of writing the pilot script, differing from the initial pitch in some areas. Production Intending to make ''The Elysium a very big show, with the appetite to rival the likes of Game of Thrones, CBS looked to give The Elysium a larger budget than they'd usually give to a show like it. This resulted in a partnership with streaming service, Netflix, who partly-funded the series, in return for exclusive international distribution rights. Left Bank Pictures were also brought onto the show to handle the physical production of the show, instead of BBC Scotland, as with Doctor Who. With a release date of May 2015 set in stone, production for the show began in November 2014, lasting until early April 2015. The show was filmed in two blocks, the first covering episodes 1-3, directed by Nick Hurran and the second covering episodes 4-6, directed by Anna Foerster. Creatives Despite his intention to also 'showrun' The Elysium, ''as well as ''Doctor Who, Moore realised that this wouldn't be realistic. Instead, Jane Espenson decided to step down from the day-to-day showrunning of Doctor Who for Season 50, and move onto The Elysium as the showrunner. Ronald D. Moore served as an Executive Producer, with Espenson, although he was only just over-seeing the process, while Toni Graphia joined as an Executive Producer, with the unofficial title of Lead Storyliner, working directly with Espenson to 'break' the series' plot. Ken MacQuarrie was not an Executive Producer on the show, as BBC Scotland wasn't involved in the making of it. Espenson decided to bring on board a whole host of new Co-Executive Producers, with the only one with any Doctor Who experience was Matthew B. Roberts, who worked on Season 49 and had already been commissioned to write the opening episode for Season 50. Andy Harries, Jim Kohlberg and Anne Kenney, were brought on board the show to offer a fresh and new perspective on the Doctor Who Universe while also forging a new path for The Elysium. Titles and Music The main title sequence for the Elysium was designed and produced by Imaginary Forces, and was by design very simplistic, simply taking the viewers into a serif title card and then showing production credits for the writer, director and creators before returning to the episode. Unusually for Doctor Who productions, the actual episode title was held off until the opening of the closing credits, where its joined by the Based upon "Doctor Who" Created by credit, before entering into the 30-second closing credit sequence. The music for the Elysium was composed by Rolf Løvland, under the supervision of Bear McCreary. On request from Jane Espenson and Ronald D. Moore, the music was heavily influenced by Celtic music and gave the series an Earthian and very natural sound, to reflect the setting of the show on the Elysium. Broadcast The Elysium's first episode was broadcast on BBC One and CBS on 31 May 2015 and was released internationally on Netflix the following morning. After the release of Episode 6 on 5 July 2015, Netflix UK & Ireland ''as well as ''Netflix US, released the full box-set, branded as a Netflix Original Series. Cast Regular * Julie Yannis Karter - Mina Anwar * Richard Davsky Geon - Esai Morales * Lea Davska Gea-Navvyl - Suzanne Packer * Eddie Nickos Kyprianos - Pallance Dladla * Calem Ell Arcon - Sinead Keenan Recurring To be announced Guest To be announced Television Stories John Dahl Production Crew To be added. Filming To be added. Home Media Physical Media To be added.